[Discussion] Ashita no Kita Yoshio

I appreciated the fact that after all the suspicions of plots and manipulations... it was in fact Yoshio who had held the key to his own problems all along. It was ironic and realistic and made sense in the way this story had been told all along. Yoshio's stubbornness and selfishness were a big part of his problems throughout the entire drama.

The fact that he had to finally face all the things that he hated about himself, the things that he refused to admit about the world, and how he'd let people use him ultimately made for a more satisfying moment for me than if this had all been in the hands of Minami and could be taken away by one simple suggestion. Negative Yoshio wasn't the cause of all Yoshio's problems either, as he was nothing more than part of Yoshio as a whole. After facing Negative, the underlying causes were what really had to be addressed. I think that having dealt with it any other way would have been oversimplified, formulaic, and far less meaningful for such a substantial character.

I adored the fact it was that pure love from Heita and their almost "father and son" bond that Yoshio reached for in the end rather than using a romantic love as most dramas seem to. (I honestly feel that Shinobu's love for Yoshio was just as pure, but Yoshio wasn't ready to reach out for her kind of love.) And the CG version of Christina's World that Yoshio inhabited is a visual that still lingers in my memory after so many months.

It was really a finale where everyone confronted themselves and struggled with the issues of love and forgiveness. Shinobu's soliloquy embodied the events of this finale perfectly and could be applied to all the characters, while their struggles and outcomes all managed to be unique from one another. It went far beyond Yoshio choosing forgiveness and love over death.

Heita was able to forgive his father and finally express honest friendship and love for Yoshio.

Rika was able to forgive herself and realize how she and Heita had been enabling eachother to do bad things. I was really glad that they addressed that issue, because I kept thinking about that during previous episodes when it was happening.

Mizuho forgave herself for what she had tried to do to Yoshio and for having never loved him.

Shinobu went from being a completely selfish person to someone who loved Yoshio purely and unselfishly, regardless of whether or not he could reciprocate those feelings.

Even Sugimoto who had the most tangible rather than emotional payoff was able to express a forgiveness in his gift of the 200 million to Mizuho so she could rebuild the company.

Yoshio and Mizuho were able to face each other and put the other in the past. Mizuho no longer had to torment herself with guilt over Yoshio, and for the first time there's hope that Yoshio can finally find happiness with a woman who loves him. (No matter how much Shinobu loves Yoshio, nothing could be between them with him still hung up on Mizuho. And nothing could ever be between him and any other woman either as long as he was pushing them away for his idealized Mizuho.) That was another of my favorite scenes in this episode.

The endings for the characters all seemed to flow as natural results of what had happened. While things weren't all sewn up for the viewers, the characters were all able to attain happiness in ways that were completely closed off from them when the story began.

Even the mystery had a solid payoff with Daisuke being revealed as the real murderer of Mizuho's husband and the origin of one final intricate plot. The twisted attraction between them at the end was both lots of fun to watch and wonderfully appropriate for their characters.

While maybe the perfect ending for the series might have had Shinobu and Yoshio reunited... I think maybe Yoshio is not ready for her yet. And that's okay... he has countless tomorrows left now, afterall.